Smashing Pumpkins Announce 20th Anniversary Tour

(Classic) Smashing Pumpkins
(Classic) Smashing Pumpkins

Two of the pumpkins (Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin) have announced the Smashing Pumpkins will be touring (5 week quick tour) in celebration of the band’s two decade career. 

Smashing Pumpkins are one of the bands on my list I still have yet to see live.  I almost saw them last year but missed out.  Last year at the 2007 Virgin Mobile Festival they were once of the end of the festival bands performing.  It was starting to rain that night and my friends and I thought it best to just hit the road and miss their performance.  I may try and see them when they start their tour off in tropical Cleveland, Ohio….

I have always been a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins.  Why in fact I was a fan when good ol’ Billy Corgan had hair! 

Here is a video that is a classic:

and another….(I love this song…):

 Tour Dates (in case you are interested): 

Smashing Pumpkins 20th Anniversary Tour

November 1 – Cleveland, OH @ The Palace Theatre
November 3,4 – Toronto, ONT @ Massey Hall
November 6,7 – New York, NY @ United Palace Theatre
November 8 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Borgata
November 11,12 – Washington, DC @ DAR Constitution Hall
November 14,15 – Boston, MA @ The Wang Center
November 16 – Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
November 18, 19 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre
November 21,22 – Chicago, IL @ Auditorium Theatre
November 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Fox Theatre
November 30 – San Diego, CA @ RIMAC Arena
December 2,3 – Los Angeles, CA @ Gibson Amphitheatre

Nominations For Rock Hall Inductees Announced Today

It’s about time the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame has their induction ceremony in good ol’ Cleveland, Ohio.  Seriously, why is it always in NYC when the museum is in Cleveland?  It’s about time the rock n’ roll capitol holds one of the most important event of the year!

This year there are a few bands I have enjoyed throughout my life that are being nominated as possible inductees including Metallica, The Stooges, and Run-DMC.  Tickets will be made available to the public for the first time ever and you can bet your sweet you-know-what I am going to try and be there.

From the Rock Hall website:

The nominations for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum have been announced!

The 2009 Induction nominees are:

Rock + Cleveland
Rock + Cleveland

Jeff Beck
Chic
Wanda Jackson
Little Anthony and the Imperials
Metallica
Run-D.M.C.
the Stooges
War
Bobby Womack

Five of these nine nominees will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The inductees will be announced in January 2009.  Ballots will be sent to more than 500 voters, who will select artists to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 24th Annual Induction Ceremony on April 4 at historic Public Hall in Cleveland.  For the first time, tickets to the ceremony will be made available to the public. Advance ticket sales for the events will be made available to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum members and then to the public.

 

For more information check out the official Rock Hall press release.

Travis Barker and DJ AM Critically Injured From Plane Crash

Travis Barker & DJ AM
Travis Barker & DJ AM (photo taken Friday at the Five Points block party)

Last night around midnight, a plane containing Travis Barker, DJ AM, and 4 others failed to take off at a South Carolina airport and crashed into an embankment outside of the air field.

4 people have been confirmed dead and it was reported that Travis Barker (former drummer of Blink 182) and DJ AM were both injured severely and are listed in critical condition at a local burn unit.

Both pilots of the plane, Travis Barker’s assistant Chris “Little Chris” Baker, and Travis Barker’s bodyguard Charles Still have all been confirmed dead.

Check out articles on Yahoo Music!, MTV News, and WIS News 10 for more information.

A press conference was held earlier this afternoon stating that the plane they were in never left the ground, overran the runway, and caught fire after the plane ran through a fence, antennas, and some lights.  The plane burst into flames as it passed over a roadway and crashed into an embankment.  Witnesses say that Travis Barker and DJ AM both jumped from the plane right after the crash.  Both were stated to have been overcome by flames and were patting each other out.

The cause of the plane crashing is still to be determined.

According to TMZ, Travis Barker sustained severe burns from the waist down. DJ AM suffered facial burns.  The two are currently at a burn unit in Augusta, Georgia.

As many of you know, Travis Barker was once the drummer of the now defunct Blink 182.  He went on and contributed to Boxcar Racer, +44, and the Transplants.  Not keeping to just punk rock bands Travis Barker also has worked with many rap artists such as Bun BThree 6 Mafia, and The Game.

Adam Michael Goldstein, aka DJ AM, once was in the band Crazy Town and continued his success as a house DJ and providing his scratching skills for bands such as Papa Roach, Madonna, and Will Smith.  He also is known for being engaged to Nicole Richie at one time.

Recently the two united to become TRVSDJ-AM, a mash-up project with Travis Barker supplying the beats and DJ AM spinning/scratching records accordingly.

The two had just performed Friday at a free college student aimed festival/block party in the streets of Columbia, South Carolina’s Five Pointsfor thousands of fans and were headed back to California.

Friday’s Five Points block party also featured Gavin DeGraw and Perry Farrell (who were not on the plane that crashed).  The event was part of T-Mobile’s “Hello Carolinas” campaign.

I really hope the two are ok.  My heart goes out to them and the families of the others on the plane who did not make it.

UPDATE:

According to the doctor attending Travis Barker and DJ AM, they both received second and third degree burns but are both expected to make a full recovery.  Travis Barker has some abdominal burns while DJ AM has burns to his hands and a part of his head.  Shockingly, they did not sustain any other injuries in the crash.

Through talking to friends and reading other websites.  I found out that speculations of the group flying to California to meet up with Chris “Little Chris” Baker’s wife who was pregnant was not true.  They were in fact flying to California but not to meet up with Chris “Little Chris” Baker’s wife as she was not pregnant.  The plane was chartered by DJ-AM as he had an event to attend in Los Angeles.

Fix Your Face

Ben Folds Five Reunites – Kinda.

Today would be the day where I wished I lived in North Carolina.

My good pal Matt already talked about this event a few weeks back on Addicted To Vinyl.  I previously had heard about it before he reminded me it was not a dream but had not had time to write anything about it until now.

Ben Folds once had a hit this big.
Ben Folds once had a hit this big.

Thanks to MySpace, Ben Folds Five reunited tonight to play a special show in their native homeland at the University of North Carolina.  The band helped launch MySpace’s new music feature “Front To Back”.  “Front To Back” pretty much sums up the idea, a selected band will play an entire album of theirs front to back for a special benefit show that later will be available on the “Place For Friends” website for public viewing.

Ben Folds was asked to play the premier “Front To Back” show originally solo but chose to contact his past band mates to see if they would get together for a special situation.  Thanks to good timing, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee agreed to perform. The band never really broke up but then again they never have stayed together.  In fact it has been just about 10 years since Ben Folds Five released their last album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner – the very album they played front to back tonight.  All three members agreed to play their last recording live to many lucky fans who nabbed tickets to the sold out show.

Proceeds from the sales of the show will benefit Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that helps children with facial deformities.

Ben Folds Five does not plan on continuing to tour after tonight as they all have their own projects going on.  I just hope that perhaps one day in the future they will come together and put out a Ben Folds Five album once again.

Ben Folds has his new album Way To Normal dropping at the end of this month and I can not tell you how excited I am to hear it.

Here is a video from the new release featuring Regina Spektor as well stars Tim and Eric from the Tim & Eric Show on Adult Swim.

You Dont Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor)

And for those of you that hadn’t heard, Ben Folds himself leaked Way To Normal to the internet himself.  The catch was that the leak was actually 6 fake songs the artist recorded in only 8 hours.  You can read more about it on RollingStone.Com.  The guy is a hilarious genius.

Here are a few more videos from Ben Folds & Ben Folds Five I enjoy:

This is a cover of The Postal Service I randomly came accross…
Such Great Heights

Horrorpops – Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill – CD Review

Horrorpops
Horrorpops

One of the more unique acts out there in the music world, The Horrorpops, released their third studio album Kiss Kiss Kill Kill earlier this year.  The Danish act with original members (who are also married to one another) Patricia Day on stand up bass and Kim Nekroman on lead guitar have been rocking out since 1996, thanks to their unique mixture of rockabilly, surf, psychobilly, and punk rock music.  They were a huge success overseas but it was not until around 2003 that the band got their US break thanks to Tim Armstrong’s (Rancid) label Hellcat Records.

Recently finishing up their mini-set tour on the 2008 Van’s Warped Tour, the band just announced their headlining fall tour in support of Kiss Kiss Kill Kill.  With bombshell Patricia Day’s giant stand-up bass and smoky singing, layered with Kim Neckroman assaulting his guitar, and Niedermeier’s drumming, the band should have no problem entertaining the masses.

The CD seemed to have a rebel theme with the song titles and lyrics, with many in reference to many female films. The CD cover mimics a poster for a B-Movie.  The sound on their third release seems to keep the same as previous without going over any boundaries to make a significant change.

Opening track “Thelma & Louise” of course makes suggestion of driving just like Susan Sarandon and Gina Davis did in their girls gone wild of a film.  Patricia Day sings strongly in this track and the music backing her up is very catchy.   “Heading For The Disco?” already is played a lot over the airwaves, especially on Sirius Radio’s Faction.  The song is a bit poppy but still delivers the pop-rockabilly feel with bass plucking and drumming making you want to boogie down.

“Kiss Kiss Kill Kill” really sounded like the Cure at the beginning, that is until the harmonies began.  The song holds Patricia Day’s cries “Kiss kiss kiss me dantly, kill kill me quietly…” with a “whoa oh oh oh” in the wake.  The song is a little gloomy, but I really dig the guitar playing.  It is a simple riff but is the type that sticks out.

Starting with what sounded like a repeat of a bass line from another Horrorpops release was “Everything’s Everything”.  The track about not wanted to let go of a complicated relationship was a reminder that this band is not about sunshine and rainbows.  Nekroman strums away during “Private Hall Of Shame” with almost a southern rock feel to his playing.

By no means is this a traditional rockabilly/psychobilly band.  They stray away from the rest and incorporate their own style to make for a more unique feel.  On their third release, I say the Horrorpops still have it and I really enjoyed what I heard.  If you want real rockabilly this band may bestow you mixed feelings but if you are looking for something fun to listen to and have a good time, then this is the perfect release for you.